RECENT HYDROGRAPHIC WORK
The work of the Division of Hydrography in the United States
Geological Survey has been greatly extended, owing to the in
creased appropriation made by Congress last spring. The reports
covering the first quarter of the present fiscal year-July to Sep
tember, 1896, inclusive-show that a large amount of data of
more or less value to geographers is being accumulated. This
relates principally to the rivers of the Rocky Mountain region,
of the Pacific coast, and of the Atlantic slope. The underground
waters also are being systematically studied, the problems being
largely geologic in character. In particular, the work of Mr
Willard D. Johnson upon the underground waters of western
Kansas should be noted. Mr Johnson has been carrying on his
examination mainly in the vicinity of Garden City, Kansas,
where he has put down a number of test-wells for observing the
fluctuations of the ground waters. By causing the large steam
pumps of the city water works to be operated at various rates of
speed the ground water has been drawn upon, and he has been
able to make valuable observations upon the rate of flow and
general behavior of these percolating waters. The lack of uni
formity in the data shows clearly that the problem of the move
ment of ground water is by no means so simple as it appeared,
and that a large amount of detailed work is necessary. The
importance of a correct knowledge of this subject can best be
appreciated when it is considered that the utilization of a large
part of the most fertile lands of the west is dependent upon the
practicability of pumping water from under ground for irrigation.
The'investigations above mentioned are, however, but a part
of those of the Division of Hydrography. In eastern Washington
and adjacent portions of Idaho and Oregon Professor Israel C.
Russell has carried on a reconnaissance of the artesian condi
tions; in North Dakota Professor Earle J. Babcock has been
making examination of the water supply derived from wells and
springs; in Nebraska Mr N. H. Darton has been making a sys
tematic study of the areal geology of the vicinities of Lincoln
and Grand Island for the purpose of obtaining detailed informa
tion regarding the underground waters, and Professor Erwin H.
Barbour has been carrying on a broad study of the wells of the